House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers gave the following statement on the House floor today in support of H.J. Res. 90, the Flight Safety Act:

"Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 90 – the Flight Safety Act.

"This bill provides funding to resume operations within the Federal Aviation Administration that are critical to the safety of our skies and our aircraft fleet. This includes bringing back 7,000 aviation safety inspectors currently not working, restarting aircraft certification activities, resuming training for air traffic controllers, re-opening the aircraft registry service, and continuing air traffic control modernization.

"The sum total of these efforts will help guarantee safe, efficient, and reliable air travel for the American public.

"This funding is provided at an annual rate of $12 billion, and will last until December 15, or until the Congress enacts and the President signs full-year appropriations bills.

"The language in this bill is yet again nearly identical to what was included in the clean CR I offered back in September – nearly a month ago.

"Once again, I call upon the Senate to consider and pass this bill. Our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol continue to call for a clean CR, yet they continue to refuse to act on these “clean” bills.

The House has put forward a plethora of options to fund the federal government: first, the four annual Appropriations bills to fund the government in regular order, then three different Continuing Resolutions prior to September 30, and now these short-term CRs to re-open parts of the federal government… more than one-third of it.

"But the Senate is committed to inaction. They did not pass any regular Appropriations bills, they will not pass our clean, short-term funding bills, and they so far have not joined us at the negotiating table.

"I hope that they will consider this bill as a stepping stone toward ending this government shutdown.

"We need to come together – in a productive way with open ears and open minds – to find a way to clean up this fiscal mess.

"I urge my colleagues to preserve the safety of the American skies, continue moving us down the path toward ending this shutdown, and pass this bill today. Thank you."